Susan B. Weiner Investment Writing - Susan B. Weiner Blog

Different folks find different titles reassuring amid the stock market’s ups and downs. This is what I’ve gathered from my call for “Article titles that reassure investors.”

My readers, including connections on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, and I have submitted the titles you’ll find below. They are listed in alphabetical order.

Please vote for your favorite in the poll that appears in the right-hand column of this blog. If you have a better title, you can add it to the poll.

• 5 triggers that will ignite the next bull market
• A lost decade, really?
• Bernanke Replaced by Harry Potter
• The blessing of balance: A view from Down Under
• Comfort is rarely rewarded: Maverick Risk and False Benchmarks
• Downgrade should mean little to long-term investors
• Has the Downgrade Created a Buying Opportunity?
• How can I retire after 12 years of range-bound markets?
• How to invest in a market with a ceiling
• How to make money whether the market goes up or down
• I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
• Intelligent Trading: A Competitive Advantage During Market Plunges
• It’s Only Money
• Pray the Course
• Run, Ride or Buy? What Should Investors Do?
• Stocks Survive Slumps Time To Buy Soon
• Stronger Backdrop for Stocks This Time Around
• These are the times!
• Volatility does not imply direction – it’s the price we pay for a higher return in the long run.
• We’re not Greece!
• _You can also add your own candidate for most reassuring title.

It’ll be interesting to see which title wins. I wonder what it will say about what we find reassuring.

I will announce the winning title in my October e-newsletter.

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Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to develop a business presence on Facebook. LinkedIn, Twitter, and my blog kept me busy enough.

But then I heard that the CFA Institute had way more followers on Facebook than LinkedIn. How many? I forget the numbers I heard at the institute’s 2010 annual conference, but more recent statistics include

• Facebook – more than 40,000 fans
• LinkedIn member group – almost 14,000 (and 27,000 in candidate group)
• Twitter – more than 8,000
• LinkedIn company page – almost 3,800

I found these stats in “The CFA Network” in CFA Magazine. The big gap between Facebook and other social media made me think seriously about Facebook.

I’m not saying that 40,000 fans on Facebook are worth more than 14,000 group members on LinkedIn. It seems as if the CFA Institute’s LinkedIn members are more engaged than its Facebook members. I enjoy my conversations on the group very much.

However, the Facebook numbers made me think about delivering content the way my readers want. I’ve blogged about this in “Great blog posts don’t matter…” Eventually I started an Investment Writing Facebook page. The Facebook page has become another way for me to share my blog posts and to experiment with starting conversations.

My Facebook page is still evolving. I haven’t found the right formula yet. But I’ve had fun experimenting. Thank you, CFA Institute!

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Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

My friend Laura Laing has written a book that demystifies math. She also writes an entertaining blog about math. I’m delighted to share her guest post about women, math, and financial planning.

If you’ve ever encountered math anxiety among your clients, Laura and I would like to hear about how you tackled it.

Math and the Gender Gap: Does it affect financial planning?

By Laura Laing

So let’s get one thing straight right away: men are not inherently better at math than women. And as our mothers and grandmothers and daughters have shown, women are not inherently bad at managing their finances.

But there are some ways that men and women experience and perhaps think about math differently. And those differences may affect how they approach financial decisions.

Math anxiety

Some research has shown that women are more likely to experience math anxiety than men.  And that math anxiety can translate to insecurity with financial decisions.  If a client feels helpless when faced with a math problem, the same can happen in situations involving money and planning.

Gender stereotypes

Even if women don’t feel anxious about math, they may buy into the myth that women are naturally bad at math.  This idea is often planted at a very young age, and the notion is reinforced by the fact that, relatively speaking, there are few women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Educational experiences

And then there’s the backlash.  If girls are more anxious and somehow believe that they’re not good at math, it stands to reason that they aren’t always able to take full advantage of their math education.  This is a kind of self-fulfilling prophesy, and we end up with women who not only think they’re not good at math but haven’t done enough math to know for sure.

What’s the point?

None of this is to say that all women lack confidence in their math skills or that all men are terrific mathematicians.  And certainly the next generation will be better off.  But when working with clients on setting financial plans, it can pay to recognize signs of math anxiety and insecurity.  The good news is that women are generally very forthcoming with their fears. But in case she’s not—or you have a male client who’s spooked by math—here are some signs:

1. Becoming suddenly talkative or suddenly quiet
2. Avoiding a particular topic.
3. Not making eye contact.
4. Skipping appointments or refusing to make decisions.
5. Letting the partner or spouse do all of the talking.

What can you do about it?

If you think that your client might be experiencing some anxiety, it helps to slow down. Look for easy ways to connect the math to your client’s situation.  Instead of writing

out formulas or using graphs, try explaining the concepts in terms of the client’s goals.  But don’t be afraid to do a little teaching, as well.  If a graph is the best tool, take time to define the axes and the units being measured.

Whether you’re working with men or women, your clients may stumble with the math involved in financial planning.  Recognizing this, you can help cut through their anxiety and assist them in making solid and profitable financial plans.

Laura Laing is the author of Math for Grownups, a funny, easy-to-understand and practical guide to how adults use math in everyday life.  She also blogs at www.mathforgrownups.com.

_______________________________________________________________
Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

Investors crave reassurance during volatile times. But it’s not easy to choose words that steady their nerves. With that in mind, I’m putting out a call for article titles that reassure investors.

Please comment with your candidate for the most reassuring title

If I get enough good candidates in the comments on this blog post, I’ll run a poll, so you can vote for a winner, as discussed in the following Facebook post:

Tom Brakke of the research puzzle blog, one of the early supporters of this contest,
clearly enjoys playing with titles. You can see this in his tweet suggesting “Pray the Course” as a reassuring title.

What makes a title reassuring?

The suggestions by John and Tom show a sense of humor, so I’m going to throw out some serious candidates for reassuring titles. I hope the following titles spark some conversation.

• Downgrade should mean little to long-term investors (Vanguard.com)
• Comfort is rarely rewarded: Maverick Risk and False Benchmarks (Sitka Pacific Capital)
• Intelligent Trading: A Competitive Advantage During Market Plunges (Royce Funds)
• Has the Downgrade Created a Buying Opportunity? (OppenheimerFunds)

What makes a title reassuring? Based on the titles above, I seem to find comfort in titles suggesting I can benefit from–or ignore–market volatility. Right or wrong, this is what works for me.

How about you? What wording do YOU find reassuring?

Aug. 30, 2011 update: I am no longer accepting comments on this post as new candidates for this competition.

_______________________________________________________________
Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

A stroll along San Antonio’s River Walk inspired this writing tip because an out-of-place detail grabbed my eye.

A white balloon bobbed along the surface of the river. Once I spotted the balloon, I couldn’t see anything else. Not pale gray stone walls. Not the greens or browns of shrubs and trees. Not the pale blue sky.

Something similar happens to your readers when your blog post, article, or white paper includes details that don’t belong there. They get distracted. They can’t grasp your “big picture” message. Just as I couldn’t absorb the River Walk’s beauty. You can help your readers by popping your “white balloon” to remove distractions from your main message.

Alternatively, sometimes your draft’s “white balloon” is a signal that you should shift your focus to center on the balloon, as I have in this piece–and in the photo below.

Note: This post was edited on August 9 and 23.

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Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

“Staying the course” is classic advice from investment and wealth managers, so I was surprised to see BNY Mellon Wealth Management challenge this adage as part of its “truth” advertising campaign.

“Staying the course is like navigating a new world with an old map,” says the headline of the BNY Wealth Management ad, which I spotted on the inside front cover of The New York Times Magazine dated July 24, 2011. I love the combination of plain English with a powerful analogy.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management ad

This ad is part of a series, which I’ve blogged about in “Financial ad in plain English: Another one from BNY Mellon” and “BNY Mellon: I liked your ‘truth ad’ until you used that word.” I hope BNY Mellon keeps up the good work.

Still, I was surprised to see the firm say, “Investors must maintain the discipline to stick with their plans,” on p. 18 of its 2020 Vision. Isn’t this what “stay the course” means? Because “stay the course” isn’t defined in the ad, I don’t know. Despite this quibble, I admire this eye-catching ad.

_______________________________________________________________
Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

A mind map can be a great tool for communicating with your financial planning or wealth management clients. Some people absorb information better in visual than written form. Even word geeks like me find mind maps useful. So I’m happy to have Alex Murguia, managing principal of McLean Asset Management, explain how you can benefit from using a mind map to create a visual display of the most important information about each client.

Not sure what a client mind map looks like? Alex has provided a generic example. You can click on it to view it in greater detail.

Why use a mind map with clients?

By Alex Murguia

Creating and sharing a client mind map shows client that you have the extensive knowledge about them that’s necessary to steer them through their financial lifecycle. This helps you overcome a common barrier to referrals as well as deepening your relationships with clients. Only 15% of clients feel their advisors are very knowledgeable about their entire situation, according to Breaking Through: Building a World Class Wealth Management Business by John J. Bowen, Jr., Patricia J. Abram, and Jonathan Powell. Over the course of a year, advisors with a perceived high level of client knowledge generated about eight referrals from clients compared to three and two referrals respectively for advisors with medium and low levels of client knowledge.

However, you won’t reap the benefits if you fail to communicate to clients your encyclopedic knowledge of their personal lives. A mind map expresses this knowledge effectively and elegantly to your clients.

At McLean Asset Management, we begin the mind mapping process in our first prospect meeting. We inform our prospect that we will ask a series of questions to determine if we are a good fit to provide value to their current situation and goals. With a pad and pencil in hand, we begin our semi-structured interview that covers various aspects of a financial life. We specifically want to have a discussion concerning a client’s values, objectives, important relationships, assets, other advisors that they work with, processes that they like, and personal interests. Each discussion topic is a node on the map that expands into subsequent branches dependent on the topic and answers.

Click on this mind map sample to view it more clearly

A mind map has important advantages over traditional note taking during the discovery process and subsequent progress meetings because:

1. It helps us drill down to a client’s key issues faster and more accurately.

2. It captures information quickly, yet in a highly organized format.

3. It makes it easy to link and cross-reference very different, yet connected, pieces of our client’s financial picture.

4. It involves clients more deeply in the discovery process.

5. It provides a basis for moving forward, with clear goals and next steps.

6. It provides you with a document that is fast and easy to review.

Unexpectedly, in about one-quarter of our discovery meetings, a client makes a point to convey a positive comment about the map.  During our second prospect meeting, we hand the potential client mind map printout for review. This is also an implicit reminder that we listen to our clients.

Mind maps are also great to show a client’s other advisors (i.e., potential referral sources for us) during brainstorming sessions about possible client solutions. Update meetings always begin with a review of the mind map. This serves as a reminder that we are best positioned to make financial decisions that impact a client’s life because we are a trusted advisor that knows all about what is important to him or her.

Alex Murguia is Managing Principal of McLean Asset Management, a wealth management firm in Northern Virginia, and CEO of Instream Solutions. He tweets as @alexmurguia1.

_______________________________________________________________
Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

Are you hitting the right level of information density in your writing?

Image by Peter Morville

“Often white papers on technical subjects written for an executive audience have…too much technical detail,” says Robert Bly in The White Paper Marketing Handbook: How to Generate More Leads and Sales with White Papers, Special Reports, Booklets, and CDs (p.16.) Bly’s comment made me think about pieces written by portfolio managers and other financial experts. Their enthusiasm for their topic often gets them bogged down in details.

Benefits first, details later

If you’re a financial professional, remember to focus first on the benefit of your expertise to your readers. Then, you can delve into the details.

Not sure if you have too much detail? Ask an objective member of your target audience for feedback.

Too little data can also hurt

Meanwhile, remember that an absence of detail can also handicap your white paper by undercutting your credibility. As Bly says, often “…white papers written for engineers and scientists have too low an information density (they are too superficial).”

Imagine, for example, you’re trying to sell a new trading system to an investment management system. The president of your prospect company will seek information differently from the company’s head of information technology.

You need to know your audience before you start writing, so you can tailor communications to them.

_______________________________________________________________
Need to write better? Register for my next class on “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors” starting May 16. You won’t get another chance to take this class until 2013.

Receive a free 32-page e-book with client communications tips when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.